Flooded terraces
In spring.
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Rice terraces covering the mountainsides of western Xinhua County, farmed for more than two thousand years over upwards of eighty thousand mu, some fifty square kilometres, so that the mountains look like green stairways climbing into the clouds. Most remarkable is the irrigation: the terraces are watered by gravity from the springs and forests above, a system kept working for centuries, which is why the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization named them a Globally Important Agricultural Heritage System in 2014; they are also a national scenic area. Their colours change with the seasons: flooded and mirroring the sky in spring, green in summer, gold as the rice ripens in autumn, and sometimes white with snow in winter. The best times are April and May, when they are flooded, and September and October, when the rice turns gold. Tickets cost about CNY 68, free for over-60s, per visitor guides.
In spring.
In autumn.
For centuries.
Shuiche and Fengjia towns, western Xinhua County, Loudi, Hunan
In April and May, when they fill with water and mirror the sunrise, and in September and October, when the rice turns gold; early morning is best for the valley mist.
Choices are few in the mountain villages, so bring food; Loudi city has restaurants run by Muslims under the halal sign.